Herd women come back to win second straight
“I’ll take it any way we can get it.” -Marshall University women’s head coach Matt Daniel
More stories from Adam Polsky
Marshall University women’s basketball fought back Thursday from a 12-point deficit to defeat the University of Southern Mississippi 67-65 in the Cam Henderson Center.
It was a game of runs with Southern Miss putting together a 15-0 stretch in the first half only two give up a 7-0 run to the Thundering Herd immediately after.
The Thundering Herd would take the lead for good with a 9-0 streak in the last three minutes of the game.
“I’ll take it any way we can get it,” Marshall head coach Matt Daniel said. “Somebody was asking me about the [Lady Eagles’] technical foul for putting six people on the floor. That was AJ [Johnson’s] two free throws. 67-65 Herd.”
Johnson and sophomore guard McKenzie Akers led the Thundering Herd with 17 points each.
They respectively went 4-12 and 5-13 from beyond the arc. Despite struggling for most of the game, it was Johnson and Akers who contributed all of the Herd’s nine points in its final push toward victory.
“We can’t just get our heads down about one shot because that can affect everything else,” Akers said, “It was a tight game throughout the whole game, and if we’re worried about offense, we’ll struggle on our defense.”
Southern Miss’ senior guard Tamara Jones led all scorers with 20 points including a three-pointer that put her team within one point with just 13 seconds to play.
Senior center Chika Ezeigbo contributed to her C-USA leading nine double-doubles with 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Herd.
The reigning C-USA Player of the Week, senior forward Leah Scott, also added 14 points. She knocked in 5-7 from the free throw line, all in the second half.
Scott is the only Marshall player to win Player of the Week honors twice in one season.
The Thundering Herd shot 40 percent from the field for the game. It is now 11-0 when shooting a field goal percentage of 40 or higher. The team is now 12-0 on the season when scoring 61 points or more as well.
The Lady Eagles fell to 12-7 and 5-3 in conference with the loss. The Herd climbed to 13-6 and 5-3 in C-USA with the victory.
Marshall will prepare for Louisiana Tech University and head coach Tyler Summitt, son of legendary coach Pat Summitt, Saturday.
Adam Polsky can be contacted at [email protected].
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